Hammer rising from the dead

Horror.com has exciting news for horror fans. Hammer Studios, maker of low-budget horror classics in the 1950s-early 1970s, is rising from the dead.

The lucrative resurgence of the horror genre in recent months has inspired a group of investors to back the first productions from the legendary Hammer Films studio in nearly 30 years. The studio behind such classics as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Devil Rides Out is joining forces with Random Harvest, a British production and funding company, and Stan Winston Productions, a Hollywood-based effects house, to set up Harvest Pictures III to back new productions. According to Screendaily Harvest Pictures III will support quality, low-budget horror projects from all three partners, capitalising on the low-cost, high-reward model that has generated tidy profits on the likes of 28 Days Later, Shaun Of The Dead, Cabin Fever and Saw. Hammer projects in the pipeline already include Perfect Sight and The Beetle. Filming is expected to begin in the early summer, close to three decades after Hammer produced its final title, The Lady Vanishes, in 1978.